What Are SJT Tests?

First, SJT stands for Situational Judgment Test. This is important to know because many make the mistake of searching for “SJT test” on the internet. An SJT is a very fascinating aspect of the psychometric tests. As the name may suggest, a situational judgment test aims to know and evaluate the reaction of an applicant in certain working situations. The situational judgment tests also help employers to assess your supposed reaction and the effects that may be caused.

SJTs try to create specific difficult situations that are commonly found in the workplace and analyze how you react to it. SJT questions often differ from place to place. This is because each profession is peculiar to its situations and the test is best conducted when strictly tailored to the fixes you are likely to find yourself in such a line of duty. An SJT examines how you think and the approach you take for specific situations.

How Is an SJT Conducted?

A situational judgment test has no strict format that must be stuck to. It is however sure to be along with the problems you may get into while discharging your duties. The test scenarios are based on certain qualifications such as the mindset, skill, behaviour, and morals that are required for success in the field. The questions are often characterized by the narration or presentation of a certain situation and the requirement of an applicant to select the best out of a number of likely options.

How Is an SJT Graded?

The human resources managers coin SJT questions and then put forward to certain professionals to choose what their line of action would be if they were in such or similar shoes. Such professionals are generally believed to have experienced such scenarios and handled them competently. Sometimes, the professionals may not have been in such fixes but have tackled certain critical scenarios and have therefore convinced the organization of their almost perfect and excellent sense of decision.

The options selected by these professionals are adopted as the correct template to be followed in such situations. Applicants with responses closest to the template are judged to have performed very well on the test.

It is worth mentioning that you may be required to arrange the given options from the most preferable to the least preferable. The template may not be of the professionals mentioned above at times; it may be of young employees who are at the same level and area of operation with you but have been deemed exemplifying due to their professionalism and ethics.

What May I Expect In A Situational Judgment Test?

Typically, an SJT presents candidates with real-time work scenarios that they are likely to encounter. This presentation may be visual, audio, audiovisual or written.

The best SJT preparation will be to read wide on possible problems you may encounter in your line of work and to engage in a lot of situational judgment test practice.

Start practising today and improve your performance on the real tests.

However, there are several formats with little differences. We will, therefore, be examining some SJT practice questions and their appropriate solutions.

1. Assessing the Ethical Righteousness of Several Prospective Choices:

You are supposed to have a briefing meeting with the members of your team on a project you are to work on.  An emergency that requires you at your child’s school has, however, come up and you do not think you will be able to make it to the meeting anymore. You have been informed that everyone is present already.

Using 1 – 4 as best to worst, grade how ethically right each of these actions is:

Call to inform you that you feel unwell and can no longer make it.

Delegate duties but are unsure of who’s capable of handling it.

Keep them waiting and quickly attend to the emergency.

Disperse the meeting, apologizing for the inconvenience and reschedule the meeting.

1. Solution:

1. Option D: This is the most appropriate option because it embodies the true features of a professional.
2. Option  B: This option will have been the most appropriate if you have a capable deputy to delegate to.
3. Option A: As wrong as this option appears, it is better than wasting the precious time of others.
4. Option C: This is the worst option. You will be wasting the time of others and you may even be unable to finish the emergency early enough and be eventually forced to call to discharge.

2. Taking Cognizance of Your Likeliness to Complete Each of the Prospective Options:

Smoking is highly prohibited in your place of work. However, you catch a close colleague smoking in the ladies.

What would you do?

1. Ignore her.
2. Create a scene that attracts other colleagues.  
3. Advise her to obey the company’s rules and threaten to report her if you catch her some other time.
4. Report her immediately to the appropriate quarters.

Solution:

This depends on your moral standing because contrary to other question types, you are asked of what you would do and not what you think is appropriate. However, the best response, in this case, is option D.

3. Recognizing the Most and Least Preferable Options:

Your company has recently effected a pay system that will pay workers strictly based on the number of hours spent, totally discarding the productivity rate. Also, you have to keep track of your hours yourself as you will be paid based on your report. You are, however not happy with this development because you consider it demotivating and unfair.

Please indicate the most and least preferable option from the following:

1. Talk to other workers and discourage them from adapting to the system.
2. Quietly obey the directive and ignore your observations.
3. Meet the manager and air your complaints.
4. Make the most of the directive by exploiting the weaknesses of the system.

Solution:

The most preferable: Option C. This option will give you the opportunity to express your views and possibly influence the pay system.

The least preferable: Option D. This option is obviously wrong. It will most likely cripple the company or lead to dismissal if caught.

4. Rating the Appropriateness Of A Number of Responses:

You answer the hotline to an irked customer who believes that she has been overcharged for a service rendered to her. You look into her case and finds her claims are not true, but she’s unwilling to listen to any explanations. With each passing second, she’s swearing, and you can sense it’s getting worse.

Please rate these prospective reactions in order of appropriateness with 1 and 4 being most and least appropriate respectively.

1. Disconnect the call.
2. Forward the case to another department you believe can handle the case.  
3. Report to the manager and ask for what to do. 
4. Try to pacify her and persist until she’s calm. Then promise to look into it critically and get back to her. Ensure that you keep your promise and get back to her.

Solution:

1. Option D. This option will make the customer feel wanted and cared for. Remember, customer satisfaction and loyalty make a business.

2. Option B. This option is more appropriate than the other two. Since you do know that you are not suitable for handling confrontations, you should transfer.

3. Option C. This option follows. Others might rate it above B, but ethically, only cases that cannot be handled by any departments should be reported to the manager. In this scenario, however, there is a unit that can handle the case, so why report at first?

4. Option A. This is apparently the worst. It will make customers feel worthless and portray a poor image of the company. This will eventually lead to customer dissatisfaction.

Common Situational Judgement Test Question Formats

How do You Prepare for a Situational Judgement Test?

The first step in preparing for a situational judgement test is to know the company. Take time out of your busy day to do some research on the company so you can prepare for both the situations and the company culture answers that would work best with each question.

While you’re researching, look up which provider the company is using. Each provider will have a different set of questions or be looking for different answers and knowing the provider can help you know how you should answer.

Understanding your role is going to clue you in to how you should answer! Computer programmers are going to have different standards for situation answers than HR representatives.

In order to understand your role, you also need to analyze the job description. This is where you’ll find all the clues you need to answer situational judgement test questions during the test!

What is a Good Score on Situational Judgement Test?

Test scores can make or break your next job! Trying to reach a certain score on situational judgement tests can cause you some serious anxiety and may not actually be what you need to do in order to score your dream job.

Situational judgement tests are all based on work-related scenario and show your competency in the workplace. Your scores are then compared to others who’ve taken the test and the benchmarks in that area.

The benchmarks for each area and role are different. So even if you answer 7 out of 10 questions correctly, others in your role may have set the benchmark at 8 out of 10 questions and you’ll be out of luck.

Research beforehand what the standard is for your position in this role and you’ll be able to scale your answers to reach the position.

FAQ: Situational Judgment Tests (SJT) for Job Applications

What is a Situational Judgement Test?

A Situational Judgement Test, or SJT, is a pre-employment assessment that presents realistic workplace scenarios and asks candidates to choose, rank, or rate possible responses.

What does an SJT measure?

An SJT measures practical judgement, decision-making, communication, teamwork, professionalism, customer service, leadership, problem-solving, ethics, and role-related behaviour.

Are SJT questions multiple choice?

Yes, many SJT questions are multiple choice. You may be asked to choose the best answer, choose the best and worst responses, rank several actions, or rate how effective each response would be.

How do you prepare for an SJT?

You can prepare by reviewing the job description, practising realistic SJT questions, learning common question formats, reading answer explanations, and understanding what strong workplace judgement looks like for the role.

Are there right or wrong answers in an SJT?

SJT answers are usually scored based on effectiveness. Some responses are considered stronger because they show better judgement, professionalism, communication, ethics, or problem-solving.

Can you fail a Situational Judgement Test?

An SJT is not always presented as a simple pass-or-fail test, but a weak score can affect your chances of moving forward in the hiring process. Employers may compare your responses with role-specific benchmarks.

What is a good SJT score?

A good SJT score depends on the role, employer, test provider, and benchmark group. In general, stronger scores come from choosing responses that are professional, practical, ethical, and aligned with the role.

How long does a Situational Judgement Test take?

Most SJTs take around 20 to 60 minutes, depending on the number of scenarios, question format, and employer assessment process.

What are common SJT question topics?

Common SJT topics include customer complaints, teamwork problems, ethical decisions, conflict with colleagues, leadership challenges, prioritisation, policy issues, and communication under pressure.